Residents Upset After Noblesville Looks To Remove Trees

NOBLESVILLE, IN -- The city of Noblesville is putting the brakes on a plan to remove hundreds of trees from neighborhoods.

This comes after residents were upset with the plans to remove trees saying that the greenery adds property value to theory neighborhoods. The city originally cited safety concerns as justification, stemming from tree roots causing sidewalks to become uneven, to a phenomena known at frost crack with causes the trees to weaken and become a risk of falling down.

However, Anna Stingley, a resident of one of the neighborhoods where trees were tagged for removal isn't convinced of the cities reasoning.

"I need hard, concrete evidence," she says. "I need statistics. I need to know how many of these trees have come down in a storm. How many have come down on their own?"

Neighbors say that the city of Noblesville started tagging trees for removal with hardly any warning, something that city Street Commissioner Patty Johnson says wasn't the best way to go about it.

"Unfortunately the city went about this, not in the best way," Johnson says. "We should have reached out to the HOA and the residents originally to let them know what were are looking at."

For now Noblesville is halting its plan to remove the trees, and plan to meet with residents next week about the matter.